Do you need to remove your solar panels to replace your roof?
Short answer: Yes. If you're re-roofing a house with rooftop solar, the entire array, panels, rails, mounts, and conduit, has to come off before the roofers tear off the old roof, and go back on, re-sealed and re-commissioned, after the new roof is finished. The part most homeowners get wrong is who does it: not the roofer. Detaching and reconnecting a solar array is licensed C-46 solar/electrical work, and letting a roofing crew handle the panels is how people void their solar warranty and end up with microcracked, underperforming modules.
Why the panels can't just stay on
A re-roof is a full tear-off: the old roofing comes down to the deck so new underlayment and shingles (or tile) can go on. Your solar array is lag-bolted through that roofing into the rafters, with flashing sealing every penetration. There is no way to replace the roof underneath a mounted array, the mounts, the flashing, and the panels themselves all sit exactly where the roofer needs to work. So the array comes off, the roof gets done, and the array goes back on.
Why the roofer shouldn't be the one to remove it
It's tempting to let the roofing crew pull the panels to save a line item. It almost always backfires:
- It's outside their license. In California, detaching and reconnecting solar is C-46 solar / electrical scope. A roofing (C-39) contractor working the DC side of your array is operating outside their classification.
- It voids your solar warranty. Panel and inverter manufacturers require the array to be handled and serviced by qualified solar personnel. "Improper handling" is exactly the clause a warranty claim gets denied on.
- Microcracks. Modules are fragile off the roof. A crew that stacks them like plywood leaves hairline cell cracks that quietly cost you production for years, and don't show up until you look at the monitoring data much later.
- It may never come back to full output. Reconnected wrong, a string underperforms or won't re-commission, and nobody notices until the next low-bill season.
The right structure is two trades that hand off to each other: a solar contractor for the array, a roofer for the roof.
The sequence, start to finish
- 1. Detach and document. The system's baseline production and layout are recorded, the array is powered down at the rapid-shutdown and disconnect, and panels, rails, flashings, and conduit come off, every part labeled by position.
- 2. Safe storage. Panels are stored on-site, off the ground, padded and secured for the days the roof is exposed.
- 3. The roofer works a clear deck. Full access, no working around panels, and any decking issues hidden under the array get fixed.
- 4. Reinstall on the new roof. New mounts are lagged into rafters and flashed into the fresh roofing (not resealing old holes), and everything goes back in its labeled position.
- 5. Re-commission and verify. The array is powered back up, rapid-shutdown is tested, and every panel and string is confirmed reporting full production in your monitoring app before the job is called done.
Permitting and re-inspection
A remove-and-reinstall usually needs its own building/electrical permit and, in many jurisdictions, a re-inspection once the array is back up. Done by the book, this protects both your new roof's warranty (proper flashing on new penetrations) and your solar warranty (qualified handling and re-commissioning), and keeps a future home sale or insurance claim clean.
What it costs
Pricing scales with system size, roof pitch and height, and how much racking has to be rebuilt. As a rough guide for the Sacramento area:
- Small system (10 to 16 panels), roughly $2,800 to $3,400
- Medium system (17 to 26 panels), roughly $3,400 to $4,200
- Large system (27+ panels): $4,200 to $4,800+
Get the solar quote before you pick a roofer. The remove-and-reinstall is the hidden cost of re-roofing a solar home. Quote it first and you know the true all-in number before you sign a roofing contract, and you can schedule the two trades to hand off cleanly. See our remove & reinstall service for how the coordination works.